Principal Software Engineer, Platform

Job Overview

At Vanta, our mission is to help businesses earn and prove trust. We believe that security should be monitored and verified continuously, and we empower companies to practice better security and prove it with ease. Vanta has a kind and talented team, and while some have prior security experience, many have been successful at Vanta without it.

Vanta is transforming how companies build and scale trust. As a Principal Engineer, you'll define the golden path for frontend development across the organization—establishing patterns, standards, and systems that enable our product engineering teams to ship faster while maintaining the highest quality.

While Vanta has strong backend engineering practices, our frontend capabilities are still maturing. This is your opportunity to establish what \"frontend good\" looks like at Vanta: defining best practices for data layer architecture, state management, testing frameworks, and design systems. You'll work closely with our AI Developer Experience team on cutting-edge AI tooling and agentic feedback loops for AI-generated frontend code—ensuring our AI-assisted development maintains quality and consistency.

You'll operate across multiple teams within both Platform and Product Engineering, especially our Design Systems and Frontend Platform teams to influence engineering-wide standards. This is a hands-on role where you'll embed with teams to solve complex problems, write code alongside engineers, and zoom out to write strategic documents for executive audiences. You'll partner directly with the Head of Platform Engineering to drive operational excellence and technical strategy for frontend at Vanta.

Visit our Vanta Engineering Blog to learn more about what our team is working on!

Key Responsibilities

• Define and drive the technical strategy for frontend development across Vanta, establishing patterns and standards that scale
• Establish best practices for data layer architecture, state management, testing frameworks, and design systems organization-wide
• Partner with our AI Developer Experience team to build cutting-edge AI tooling and agentic feedback loops for AI-generated frontend code
• Embed with teams to solve complex technical problems hands-on, spending approximately 50% of your time writing code
• Drive operational excellence initiatives across Platform teams, including metrics definition, standard-setting, and org-wide rollout
• Influence engineering-wide decisions and strategy through technical leadership and clear communication with executive audiences
• Work across Design Systems, Frontend Platform, and Product Engineering teams to create shared solutions with broad organizational impact
• Mentor and coach engineers across the organization, helping them level up their frontend skills and architectural thinking

Required Qualifications

• Expert-level proficiency in JavaScript and deep experience with modern frontend technologies
• Experience with GraphQL and building scalable data architectures for web applications
• Broad technical knowledge across testing frameworks, build systems, accessibility standards, internationalization, and localization
• Proven track record of driving organization-wide technical initiatives and influencing engineering strategy
• Demonstrated ability to balance hands-on technical work with strategic thinking and executive communication
• Strong skills in building platforms and tools for other developers, with a focus on consumable APIs and excellent developer experience
• Experience leading technical change while maintaining product velocity and quality
• Ability to navigate ambiguity, identify high-leverage work, and know when to delegate versus embed deeply
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills, capable of influencing peers and leadership across the organization
• Track record of building relationships and navigating complex organizational dynamics
• Open to using AI to amplify their skills and strengthen their work - demonstrating curiosity, a willingness to learn, and sound judgment in applying AI responsibly to improve efficiency and impact.

About Vanta

We started in 2018, in the wake of several high-profile data breaches. Online security was only becoming more important, but we knew firsthand how hard it could be for fast-growing companies to invest the time and manpower it takes to build a solid security foundation. Vanta was inspired by a vision to restore trust in internet businesses by enabling companies to improve and prove their security. From our early days automating security monitoring for compliance standards like SOC 2, HIPAA and ISO 27001 to creating the world's leading Trust Management Platform, our vision remains unchanged.

Now more than ever, making security continuous—not just a point-in-time check— is essential. Thousands of companies rely on Vanta

Benefits

Industry-competitive salary and equity
100% covered medical, dental, and vision benefits with dependents coverage
Pension contribution
16 weeks fully paid Parental Leave for all new parents
Health & wellness stipend
Remote workspace, internet, and cellphone stipend
Flexible work hours and location
21 days of Vacation Time and 80 hours of Sick Leave
11 company-paid holidays
Virtual team building activities, lunch and learns, and other company-wide events!
Offices in SF, NYC, London, Dublin, Tel Aviv, and Sydney